In the Shadow of Your Heart
by OCD ADD Goldfish
Summary: Collection Snape/Sinistra drabbles for The 100 Little Things Challenge. Unconnected and some AU. Requests welcome!
1. The Morning Shower Dilemma

**Disclaimer:** World of Harry Potter property of J. K. Rowling. Title for this collection of drabbles from the song Cosmic Love, by Florence and the Machine.

 **A/n:** Collection of Snape/Sinistra drabbles. Prompts from the 100 Little Things Challenge by halffictionalprincess. Some prompts from The If You Dare Challenge.

 **Prompts:** (#2) Take showers together.

* * *

 _ **The Morning Shower Dilemma**_

"What are you doing?" Severus asked as Aurora pushed him, her hand somehow scalding him even in spite of the fact that it was much cooler than the warm water that was falling on his body.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Aurora responded as she managed to maneuver herself under the spray of water, essentially displacing Severus until he was behind her while she tilted her head back, her long, thick, wavy, dark hair quickly becoming wet and losing volume.

"I don't have time-" Severus started to snap in turn, his irritation mounting, especially as another part of his anatomy started to rise to the occasion.

Severus tried very hard not to look down at Aurora's slender, and currently very wet body... somehow the ivory of her skin becoming so much more tempting as it glistened...

Severus shook his head and scowled at the dark head in front of him.

"Neither do I. Which is why I'm sharing your shower... I don't have time to wait for you to finish," Aurora responded as she quickly lathered and washed her hair, he eyes shut.

"Where do _you_ have to be?" Severus scoffed.

It was six in the morning, and Aurora didn't have day classes... he earliest class didn't start until ten at night. Which made their... socializing schedule somewhat difficult.

Aurora was now done with the washing of her long hair and Severus rather found all thoughts petering out as he watched her intently as she proceeded to wash her body.

"I'm supposed to meet Septima over something or other... I'm not sure what as I was half-asleep when she was talking about it yesterday during lunch," Aurora replied with a frown, not even turing to look at him when he placed his hands on her hips to help her keep balance as she bent over to retrieve the soap she'd somehow managed to drop, much to Severus' consternation as he felt her hip brush against his... "You know how Septima is about punctuality... honestly, I don't know how it's possible but I think she's even more anal retentive than you."

Severus didn't respond to this, not really being able to think about Septima Vector while Aurora Sinistra was, as always, proving to be an incredible distraction. And as always, incredibly obtuse about what she was putting him through, even as Severus couldn't help his fingers squeezing almost painfully into Aurora's well-rounded hip.

"You're hurting me, Severus," Aurora snapped as she turned around suddenly and pushed his hand away from her, finally looking up, her mouth opening comically in an O of surprise even as Severus took his hand away from her.

"Really Severus?" Aurora then asked when she recovered, sending a pointed look towards his pelvis before looking at him with a teasing smile.

Severus couldn't help scowling at her.

"Are you done yet?" Severus retorted, not deigning to comment on her question or look.

"I'm sorry, Severus," Aurora stated, though she didn't sound terribly contrite considering he could hear the laughter in her voice. "I could tell Septima I overslept... It really wouldn't be a first," she suggested while tracing her hand on a path down... down... down...

Severus wanted to tell Aurora that while she might be perfectly content to not keep her appointments that he was not- but Aurora was really too tempting, and what sort of man would say not to such a gorgeous witch?

Though, he was unsure whether he'd be able to tolerate Albus' knowing looks... but then it also wouldn't be the first...

 _ **~FIN~**_

 _ **Please Review!**_


	2. Stay With Me

**Prompts:** (#18) Find a nice secluded place to lie and watch the stars.

* * *

 **Stay With Me**

" _...I still need love cause I'm just a man. These nights never seem to go to plan. I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand?"_

 _-Sam Smith, Stay With Me_

"I still can't believe you haven't outgrown this," he says in the dark, even as he lays on his back, so too staring at the sky... or rather... the frozen and enchanted representation of it... as it's sketched magnificently through magic on the ceiling of the Astronomy classroom.

At twenty-five... Severus certainly feels that he's outgrown, laying on his back on the ground, staring up at the stars. Though the floor beneath him is heavily carpeted... it's still quite uncomfortable for his still, too-bony back.

But... this is Aurora at her most tranquil... her guard for once lowered... and all the bitterness of yesterdays... all the resentments of their shared past... all the pain that he's caused her... it's only in these moments when she can set it aside. And Severus wouldn't be much of a Slytherin, if he didn't take advantage of that... of these few and spare moments where Aurora is almost like the girl he used to know... his only friend, when there was nothing or no one else.

"Can you ever outgrow your first love?" she asks, and though there is a teasing tone to her voice, there is also that soft melancholy that always seems to come over her on these nights, when he joins her in her star-gazing.

Severus isn't sure how to respond to that. Isn't sure what exactly she's trying to say.

Though he knows her first love, perhaps, has always been the stars, he knows there is more to her words than the obvious statement. She wouldn't be much of a Slytherin if there weren't.

But Severus has never really understood, how it would be possible for anyone to love him.

But then... he can't really doubt Aurora, because he knows even if she tries to hide it, how much he's hurt her. And only the people you love, have the power to hurt you.

And it's staggering... that anyone could love him so much, even through the years and everything he's said and done. That she can love him so much... even through the interval of so many years spent apart... even in spite of the distance... that every day, she still feels the pain so acutely.

He's never deserved it. It was something he's always known... since their friendship blossomed in second year. Since she kissed him at the end of fifth year. Even whilst in the midst of being blindly in love with someone else... he's always known he was undeserving of Aurora Sinistra's regard.

Turning his head, he stares at her profile which is upside down, but still so beautiful. So snowy in it's paleness... serene in the starlight which is all the brighter in her magical classroom.

Splayed around her are the long locks of her slightly curly, long hair. The fragrant, silken strands look so much like spilled, black ink. And Severus can't help inhaling sharply the scent which he is sure he would never tire of. Which he can never resist, wishing to bury his nose in.

 _No_ , his mind answers, even as he can't bring his lips to form the monosyllabic word to answer her question. _First loves are impossible to forget._

But he doesn't think she really wanted an answer. And when she turns her head, and stares into his eyes with a set as dark as his... he feels like the breath has been punched out of him, at the way they seem to sparkle like the stars above.

"It's getting late," she whispers, her tone quiet and Severus feels his heart squeeze and plummet. Because he knows the message she's conveying...

 _'It's time for you to leave... I can take no more tonight...'_

But Severus doesn't want to go. Can't find the strength in him to push off the floor, and leave. Because even when it hurts... even if they are saying nothing, and merely laying next to each other, staring at the unfathomable darkness above... she's still the only light in his life.

And while he enjoys her barbs... and tolerates her Ice Queen attitude during the day... he's come to live for these nights.

It's selfish to ask for more, when she's always given him so much... but Severus has never denied being selfish.

"And I thought you would never tire of the stars," he says... because he can't bring himself to beg her to let him stay, if only a while longer, even though he knows it would not be enough.

Aurora turns away from him and shuts her eyes, exhaling slowly. He thinks for a moment, she might just set him straight... tell him it was never the stars she'd tire of, but his presence. In fact, if it were day, she _would_ say that.

But her patience... her understanding... her kindness towards him, it never ceases to surprise him.

Raising a hand, she lets it fall in the space between their faces.

"Just a little while longer," she exhales.

And that's another thing he's grateful for. That she never _does_ make him beg.

And though it's like tempting fate... thought he's pushing far past her barrier of comfort... he can't help reaching his own hand up, and tentatively sliding his fingers along her own thin fingers.

Aurora releases a shuddering breath, even as she turns her hand to more easily twist her fingers with his own, her face turning towards their twined fingers. And though her eyes remain shut, she leans forward, her lips resting against the skin on the back of his hand and the moisture on her cheeks, salting his skin.

"I always so, loved your hands," she whispers, even as he clenches his fingers tighter against hers, unable to help the way she can still make his heart skip a beat, and clench, and soar and fall... all simultaneously.

 _ **~FIN~**_

 _ **Please review! Also, requests are welcome! :)**_


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